Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ventura, CA

Today was our Rt. 1 drive down the coast of California and it was amazing. We knew it was going to take us a lot longer to get to Los Angeles, but the view was spectacular.The road was on the edge of a cliff that dropped straight into the ocean. I was actually a little scared during the whole drive because with one false turn, we would be fish food.

We drove through areas like Big Sur, and had lunch at a restaurant built right into the cliff. It had an amazing view of the ocean. The water is a crystal blue-green, with big black rocks jutting out of it. Very dramatic.

Then we came upon a beach with hundreds of elephant seals on it.

Apparently, it is breeding time for them, and they do their thing on the beach. We just saw them all sunbathing and arguing with each other. They were really funny, making all sorts of noises like burps and farts and barks. Some of the seals threw sand on themselves to stay cool. They are extremely fat animals, and while I'm sure they're very good swimmers and graceful in the water, they are quite clumsy on the beach.

And by the way, did you notice from the photos that we have sun and blue sky today? As soon as we left San Francisco, it was all blue skies. Thank goodness. I was getting tired of looking out at the ocean and only seeing gray, gray, gray.

Tonight we are staying in Ventura, which is about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. We went into the town center to get dinner, and it seems like every other store sells antiques. We window-shopped a little. I'm always haunted by the old photos of unknown people. Who are they? Why did their photos end up in a store? Is their family out there looking for them? There's a website called Dead Fred that tries to connect mystery photos with their long-lost family. I love it. I posted a few of my photos on there (I have a few mystery photos in my collection, like anyone). There are some people who will actually go around and buy all these orphan photos and post them on the web. And I must say that sometimes I've felt the urge to do that. I guess sometimes people actually find photos of their relatives.

Tomorrow we're driving into L.A. to look around. We thought about trying to see a show, but of course, we needed to have foresight to get tickets, and we didn't know when exactly we'd be in L.A. Plus, I think Jim would rather not spend a whole lot of time in L.A. because he doesn't like it. I want to see the Chinese Theater with the handprints and signatures in the cement out front, and I want to see the Hollywood sign. And it might be interesting to drive around some of the rich neighborhoods. But I don't think we're going to spend a whole lot of time there. When we're done sightseeing, we're driving to San Diego. San Diego will be our last stop before we fly back on Sunday.

So is anyone out there going to see the Sex & the City movie tomorrow?? I'm dying to see it, but I don't think it'll happen until we get back to Boston. There seems to be a lot of hype for it, much more than for most movies.